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A brook so shallow you hardly got your feet wet separated a community for over four decades. Because of a chance of geography, the 50 residents of Mödlareuth, a hamlet bordered by coniferous woods, pastures and stunning vistas, found themselves at the center of the Cold War tensions. They had the unfortunate circumstance to cross Bavaria, in West Germany, and Thuringia in the Soviet sector, a frontier that was established first by a fence and then by a barricade. American soldiers called it Small Berlin.

Commemorating History

A few months after their own barrier was opened, and even before their state had reunified in 1990, a collection of villagers began documenting their history. The effort is about to come to fruition: on 9 November, the 36th annual anniversary of the fall of the German barrier, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was officially launched by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the first part of October, but the show wasn’t quite finished. Telling the residents who endured the former times, Steinmeier said: “You were witnesses of an cruel split, which pulled relatives asunder and turned neighbours into strangers.”

“You were bystanders of an cruel separation, which ripped families into pieces and turned local residents into aliens.”

Bygone Context

Even at its creation in 1810, the community cut across the Bavarian Kingdom and the Reuss Principality, a noble lineage most famous for bestowing all its men the title Heinrich and labeling them consecutively by birth order. As Steinmeier told the gathering, the quirk did not stand in the manner of the locals drinking in the identical pub, attending the identical place of worship and sending their children to the same educational institution.

Post-War Separation

Then came the second world war. The moment they came, the Soviet forces erected timber poles by the stream. For a twelve months they occupied the whole community, establishing their control center in a house on the Bavarian side, adorning it with a picture of Stalin and a red star. The Americans urged them to withdraw to the other side of the creek. For a time, residents could still hop over, though as limitations increased they were required to show identity papers, although everyone knew who they were, and to come back at evening.

Escalation of Frontier Measures

Subsequently, in 1952, came wire fencing and the legal closing of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a concrete structure was erected, with explosives, anti-tank obstacles and watchtowers. The villagers could still view each other by ascending elevations, but on the Soviet side gesturing and yelling were forbidden. A female resident was placed on a GDR intelligence monitoring list for replying “likewise” to a West German resident who greeted her “prosperous new year”.

Museum Establishment

It was related to me accounts like these tales by Robert Lebegern, the head of the institution, who has spent a significant portion of his working life building it. Villagers were consulted at an early stage about how much barrier they wanted to keep. They chose a section on the west fringe, adjacent to where one of their own managed to escape in the middle of the night with a climbing device, after which the frontier was substantially strengthened.

Maintained Installations

2 observation towers are conserved in addition to a set of tableaux showing the most impactful dates in the community’s past. As we stroll, Robert Lebegern enumerates the regulations: no one could approach 5km of the boundary. Agricultural workers needed particular approval to tend to their produce; the husband or wife could operate the agricultural equipment but never the pair, lest they tried to escape. Soldiers kept guard.

Wider Perspective

The boundary between West Germany and the GDR extended 1,400 kilometers, from the northern sea in the northern part to this location in the southern region. Berlin is commemorated and documented the most frequently, but more than two times more people (exceeding 300) died seeking to pass over it in rural areas than in the metropolis. the director informs me that 95% of attempts to flee did not succeed.

Hamlet Life

Most of Mödlareuth’s locals were rural laborers or craftsmen, who adjusted to living in the grey zone between two ideological spheres by keeping their heads down and caring for their fields. They nor did they endorsed the communist regime nor fought it, Lebegern explains.

Interest

For sightseers, however, the hamlet became a sort of destination. Roughly 15k came to see each year, viewing tools in hand, to look – and then quickly depart. In 1983, the American president, George Bush, was shown around by the German defense official.

Twenty-five years after merger, the TV show, a television program about a made-up village like Mödlareuth, caused renewed interest.

Current Changes

The opening of the new museum – with a cafe, shop, movie theater and large parking lot – is expected to